Flight Behavior By Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, $28.99)

A novel about inner and outer climates.

The Fun Stuff: And Other Essays By James Wood (Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, $27)

A staff writer at the New Yorker and a visiting lecturer at Harvard Wood takes
on talents as diverse as Keith Moon. Thomas Hardy, and George Orwell.

Among the Islands: Adventures in the Pacific By Tim Flannery (Atlantic
Monthly, $25)

A witty, good-humored mammalogist’s account of the impact humans have had on their environment.